What Lives In A Cage
by Dimmension Traveler
Summary: Summary inside
1. Chapter 1

_**Just a story that came out of nowhere. AU of all AU's for my stories. A bit of backstory for this tale.**_

_**Zatara had made a bargain with Fate on the day of Zatanna's birth. The bargain: if Fate was to spare his wife and daughter from death then, in later years, Zatara would become the host of Fate. And if Zatara showed even the slightest hesitation in becoming a host Fate would take over his body by force, making Sindella and Zatanna the deities to toy with.**_

_**But, if there was one thing Zatara forgot, it's that Fate plays by it's own accord. Twelve years after Zatanna's birth, Sindella died in a church fire. Firefighters were too late to save her and Zatara only had time to get Zatanna out. Zatara had confronted Fate, saying it was not part of the deal.**_

_**Fate countered Zatara's accusation, saying that rules and boundaries had not been drawn or declared, so the twisted game of chess had begun. Two years after Sindella's death, and after Zatanna's fourteenth birthday, the teen had nearly died at the hands of Zatara's enemies: Felix Faust, Wotan, Wizard, and Blackbriar Thorn.**_

_**After Zatanna had donned the helmet, Zatara had thrown himself into breaking the deal, giving himself up to Fate. And, shortly afterwards, is where the story begins.**_

* * *

She knew she shouldn't. Knew she couldn't. Her father was gone, under Fate's helmet, practically dead to everyone. But, upon remembering the look in his black eyes made her reconsider the offer he had given her a year ago. A year. Is that how long it's been since she had set foot in her home? Heard him calling to her to see if she was home, before running up the stairs and practically banging her door down when she didn't answer him.

Six days ago, she had ran away. Destroyed all of what was in her room at the cave, except for a bag of clothes and some miscellaneous items she hid in a pocket-like dimension, and set out to find ways to strengthen her magic. She had no way of knowing if she had succeeded or not, because she hadn't cast a spell in days. Then, she had fallen ill because of her noncompliance to cast a spell. She needed help, but wasn't going to risk going to the her so-called friends.

They'd hand her over to the League the first chance they got. They barely knew her, probably never really cared for her. They let her stay at the cave out of pity. She didn't need pity. She needed a way to get stronger. Fate wasn't going to help. He was too busy using her father as a pawn in an elaborate game of chess against Chaos. She made a decision, she wouldn't contact the League or team. She would contact the one with the power to help her get what she wanted: Klarion the Witchboy.

She gathered up items from around her, arranged them in a summoning pentagram, and called to the Chaos boy. It used up whatever magic hadn't faded, whatever life energy that hadn't been exhausted from the time she had left the cave. She had collapsed beside the pentagram, colored dots clouding her vision. Her body was becoming numb, becoming cold. The nocturnal life around her was becoming distant. She saw a pale face and dark eyes looming over her. The last thing she heard before her mind was consumed by a sea of black, was a distant sounding voice say "You should have called me earlier."

* * *

Intrigue. That was what Klarion had felt when he had been summoned to the forest. It had been a year, who knew she would be too stubborn to take his offer back then. But, he knew. Klarion could see this girl wanted to become stronger than even her own father. It would take some time, but he knew eventually she would except.

But, what he wasn't expecting, was to see the girl before him in such a state of agony. Didn't she know that if magicians didn't cast a certain number of spells each day then illness would happen? _Well,_ He thought _she knows now. _He loved the forest as much as the next ageless mage. But he now had to deal with a sick, and for all intensive purposes, mortal mage.

Normally, he would be sensible about this and just drop her off at the foot of the Little League's base. But, after realising how far she had to go just to get out of it- they were currently in the thickest part of the woods that surrounded Happy Harbor, he reconsidered. He picked her up and cradled her to his chest in a bridal style carry, realizing he was taking great care with her like she was made of glass. He turned back to the portal that had summoned him.

"Teekl, in." He commanded.

The red pawed tabby obeyed, dragging the bag into the center and sitting down beside it. Klarion walked into the center and stood next to his cat. A second later, the pentagram lit up with white light, transporting Klarion, Teekl and Zatanna to the Chaos agents home/base of operations, a mansion hidden by the most ancient forms of magic that have been lost to all, in Roanoke. They reappeared in a room, one of the many unused rooms in the place, that was covered in a light layer of dust.

"_Stud, hsinav morf siht moor_."

At Klarion's words, all of the dust vanished from the room. Where is went, Klarion had no idea, and as long as it wasn't in any of his favorite rooms in the house, he didn't care. He set the girl on the bed in the room, his cat jumped up onto the bed to watch this scene closer. He felt her magic levels, too high for a mortal mage. It must have been some time ago since a spell had left her lips.

She would have a long way to go if she wanted to get better and stronger. And, unfortunately for him, he would have to be the one to help her. Questions rang throughout the air around him: did he have the patience to train her? Would she even listen? Those questions were to be answered upon her awakening. Now, all Klarion had to do, was wait.

* * *

_Stud, hsinav morf siht moor_.= Dust, vanish from room.

_**Will contain Babymagic in later chapters.**_


	2. Chapter 2

Waiting, waiting. Klarion was bored to death with waiting for her to wake up. She had been out for five hours and he was not happy at all, time is Chaos you know. He had gotten to the point when he wanted to kill her as she slept so he would no longer have to deal with watching her, but then, he came up with another solution. He rolled up his left sleeve and took off the a black wristband that was lined with blood-red rubies. He took her left hand and slipped the wristband on it, from there he was able to absorb the excess magic that was keeping her comatose.

Her blue eyes shot open so quickly, Klarion briefly wondered if he had actually killed her. That's when her right hand shot up, striking him in the face and turning his face away from her. His pupils dilated, the eyes that was visible to her moved down to look at her as his eyes changed from soulless black to merciless red. Her once lovely light blue eyes were now a duller shade and were glaring into his red eyes, expecting- no she was daring him to make a move in retaliation. To her surprise, he chuckled.

"Well, Babymagic.." He began, turning his face to look at her with both eyes while cracking his neck in the process. "it looks like you've got a death wish."

"Try it and your cat is as good as stuffed." She threatened

At this, Klarion laughed. He knew she was serious, and that was what he was hoping for. "Very well." He turned towards the door "You have five minutes to get dressed before we begin training." He started walking out of the room

* * *

Zatanna scoffed at the ageless boy. Five minutes, who does that kid think he is? Definitely not her father, that's for sure. He also said there would be training, so that was as good of a start as any. She grabbed her bag and pulled out some clothes before getting dressed. She didn't even notice the bracelet until after she had finished getting dressed. The black band covered in red rubies was gorgeous, especially on her pale skin. She brushed out her hair and put it up in a ponytail to avoid it from getting in her face. She walked outside the door to see Klarion standing there, arms folded over her chest and looking cross.

"Your five seconds late." Klarion glowered as he used magic to pin her to the wall "Don't let it happen again."

Zatanna glared at him, even though this forever brat was training her, he has no authority to do that. Her anger pulsated through her body, into her soul, and a yellow halo manifested around her, blocking Klarion's magic. "You may be training me, but that doesn't mean you can tell me what to do outside of training."

Klarion smirked at her spunk. Oh, how nice it would be to mold her into the perfect partner in crime-aside from Teekl. "Those are the terms we agree to, you do as I say during training and then you get your free time."

Zatanna lowered her eyelids over her dull blue eyes in boredom. "Very well."

"Come." Klarion said, already walking down the hall. He led her down a flight of stairs to a door that was located on the side of the stairs. He opened the door to reveal rows upon rows of books and candles, as well as a training circle in the center of the room. "This is the room where you will study and then tested."

Zatanna nodded, walking into the room and selecting the first novel she could. The text was in some form of odd writing.

Klarion rolled his eyes "I think it's best if you start with the translational novels before you keep wasting more of my time."

He took down a thick book with a black covering and a golden spine. Zatanna put the book she was holding back as snatched the novel in Klarion's hand. She walked over to the training circle, muttering a spell to make the candles burn brighter, and sat down. She opened the book and began reading, mouthing out the words of the ancient text in it's translated state.

Klarion walked out of the room and created a portal to go who knows where to create Chaos. He ended up in Gotham, one of the best places to cause Chaos, considering in this town it started itself, and started to wreck the place. He needed an outlet to get rid of the energy that Babymagic had infected him with. He destroyed countless buildings and almost wrecked the Batmobile as Batman and his bird sped towards him.

Klarion smirked as Batman and Robin threw their Batarangs at him, which he blocked with a small tornado. "Finally. Moving targets!"

* * *

Zatanna had grown bored with reading the novel Klarion had given her after the third page. She got up and decided she could do with a snack. She exited the room, making sure she remembered where it was because she didn't know if the house moved around or not, before setting out to find the kitchen, assuming Klarion's home had one.

She found it, easily enough. When she walked in, she opened the fridge to discover that it had things like chocolates, fruits, vegetables and red meats. He didn't say what she could or couldn't do in his absence, but she figured she'd finish that novel before she took a look around. She grabbed an apple and walked back to where the room was, it hadn't moved at all, and went back to reading the novel while munching on the apple.

* * *

Klarion, after an hour of fighting the two, grew increasingly bored. After sending huge mosquitoes at the two, gave a dramatically bored sigh. "As fun as it is toying with the two of you, I have chaos to cause elsewhere." He snapped his fingers and said, "Latrop, reappa." A swirling red portal behind him. He grabbed Teekl and stepped backwards through it, laughing as he did so.

As soon as Klarion stepped through the portal, the insects disappeared. Robin tried to throw a batarang at him, only to have the portal vanish when the batarang got close and then it became stuck in the wall that the portal was summoned on. Robin muttered some Romanian curse words as he took the weapon out of the wall while Batman walked over to the batmobile.

* * *

Zatanna had read through half of the translational novel before she decided to try the spells out for herself. She had summon a little robin, and became disgusted with it. She began morphing the creature, sketching it's tiny bones, making it scream in pain. She was so immersed with the tortured creature, she didn't notice Klarion walking into the room until she heard a soft chuckle.

She threw the bird at him, which Teekl took the liberty of snatching out of midair and devouring in front of them. She went back to reading the novel as though nothing had happened, trying to ignore the fact her stomach said the energy from the apple was gone. Klarion, hearing the growling, snatched the book from her, earning a death glare from the blue eyed witch, and proceeded to look at her with a blank stare.

"Using magic on an empty stomach isn't something to practice, experience should have taught you that." He smirked when her scowl deepened. "Go eat something, aside from an apple." He noted the core on the ground. Zatanna rolled her eyes, getting up and grabbing the apple core, before going to the kitchen. Klarion put the book on a table and then proceeded to follow her.


End file.
